“My father was a different person when he came home from...

“My father was a different person when he came home from Vietnam.  He drank a lot.  He was never around.  So everything I learned about being a man, I learned from my grandfather, Daniel O’Connell Renehan.  He also grew up without parents.  When he was two years old, his mother died while cooking soup.  The cauldron fell on her.  So my grandfather spent his childhood in an orphanage.  He never went to school, but he educated himself.  He was a voracious reader.  Eventually he became the treasurer of a bank on Park Avenue.  He was in his late fifties when I was born.  But he treated me like his son.  We’d watch Notre Dame Football together.  We’d go on long walks.  We’d sit on an old covered swing for hours and he’d tell me stories about Irish kings.  I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.  My mother did her best, but she was always at work, and there were too many wrong roads to take.  So I’ve lived my life by his example.  Being a father has always been the most important thing to me.  I’ve got four kids of my own now.  All of them turned out great, and one of them is named Daniel.”